Bending Towards Justice?

It is widely known that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The criminal justice system disproportionately affects people of color and effectively keeps the poor in poverty. Despite differing motives and proposed solutions, conservatives and liberals have increasingly agreed on the need for criminal justice reform, and in recent years they have made some progress in advancing that cause. But today, under a new White House administration, we have seen a resurgence in the policies and rhetoric of stop-and-frisk, the war on drugs, the militarization of police departments, the surveillance of legal protesters, and mass incarceration. What is our response to this trend? Adam Foss, Meg Reiss, Michelle Jones, Steven Teles, and David Dagan and moderator Max Kenner debate the current state and future vision of criminal justice in America.

The discussion will open with a short play reading of an excerpt from The Duchess of Stringtown, written by Michelle Jones and Anastazia Schmid.